GMOs
Genetically Modified Organisms
TheTerms:
GE- genetic engineering or genetically engineered
GMOs- genetically modified organisms (interchangeable with GEOs)
GEOs- genetically engineered organisms
From Japan to Canada, Brazil to New Zealand and most countries around the world; governments, environmentalists and consumers en masse are dissenting against "transgenic" plants. The rest of the world is in an uproar, yet here in the U.S. no one seems to notice. Is it because we are misinformed or uninformed? The powers to be and Monsanto, the St. Louis, MO-based multi-national corporation is selling biotechnology with missionary zeal. Indeed the battle in other countries has been fierce.
In India, the parliament enacted a ban on GMO crops, and farmers enacted "Operation Cremation Monsanto", they started burning their crops even before the ban went into effect.
In London, Prince Charles, an advocate of organic farming spoke out against genetic modification of food and called for a greater reverence for nature. "If a fraction of the money currently being invested in developing GMO crops were applied to understanding and improving traditional systems of agriculture, the results would be remarkable", he said. "We need to rediscover a reverence for the natural world, irrespective of its usefulness to ourselves".
Despite prohibitions on growing GMO crops, genetically modified rapeseed (canola oil), made its way onto farms in as many as four European Union countries: Britain, France, Germany and Sweden. The seeds apparently were imported by accident. The findings created a dilemma over whether such crops should be destroyed in keeping with stringent regulations over the planting of genetically altered plants. French and Swedish governments ordered the genetically altered crops destroyed and environmentalists in Britain called for an immediate "search and destroy" operation to insure that thousands of acres of GM crops planted unknowingly were traced and pulled out. Italy's farm minister ordered anti-fraud checks to see if transgenic seed had been sold to farmers without their knowledge.
Australia and New Zealand enacted what legislators there call the "strictest" labeling rules in the world, even more strict than those in the European Union. In Greece the government ordered the destruction of as much as 10,000 acres of genetically modified cotton at a cost of the equivalent of $3.3 million. Greece bans the planting of all GMOs. Brazil ordered nine products with genetically modified ingredients off grocers' shelves, citing a law that requires all ingredients to be listed on the label. The nine products had no label indicating the inclusion of GMOs.
In the United States, however, over two thirds of the foods in our grocery stores are made with GMO ingredients, with no label required. The FDA admits it is operating under a White House directive "to foster" the biotech industry. Under this directive, the FDA was instructed to base its police on the premise that GE foods are essentially the same as others. However, the agencies own scientists rejected this premise and repeatedly warned that genetic engineering entails a unique set of risks. FDA bureaucrats disregarded their own experts' input, instituted a policy that presumes GE foods are as safe as conventional ones and do not require any testing. They also covered up statements from their scientists. The FDA has knowingly endangered public health in order to promote the financial interests of giant corporations.
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